$20K for Obama’s Waffle

How much would you pay for Barack Obama’s unfinished breakfast? It is not an academic question—or at least, it wasn’t yesterday, when Obama’s leftover waffles from a campaign breakfast at Scranton, Pennsylvania’s Glider Diner went up for auction on eBay. The listing proclaimed, “THIS IS BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA’S BREAKFAST FROM THIS MORNING, 4-21-08 AT THE GLIDER DINER IN SCRANTON, PA. WINNER GETS HIS USED DINER PLATE WITH HIS USED SILVERWARE AND UN EATEN PORTION OF HIS WAFFLE & SAUSAGE LINK. IT WAS WRAPPED WITH SARAN WRAP IMMEDIATELY AFTER HIS DEPARTURE AND IS NOW IN THE FREEZER AWAITING THE LUCKY WINNERS BID!!!”

Turns out that the Glider’s owner had given the breakfast leftovers to a loyal customer, John Oakes, who threw them up on eBay with the intention of raising money for his candidate—Hillary Clinton. Obama’s breakfast had gotten 36 bids and reached $20,100 before it was taken down on Tuesday. Oakes said he removed it because he was worried the listing had given the Glider Diner bad publicity. He also said that his claim that he was raising money for Hillary was just a joke.

“We put it up there because we figured people are nuts and they might go crazy with it. And guess what? They did,” Oakes said.